The Bride: A Sequel to Hwarang: The Saga of the Sooks Book #7

Chapter 32: Best-Laid Plans

As it turned out, Ni Na tucked Dae Hee into bed before eight o'clock. And lay down alone on the bed next to the tiny girl. Both Beom Sook and the girl's brother were playing a game with the older boys in their classroom as Lady Lee and Ni Na tucked the younger children into bed.

Dae Hee was the last of the children to whom Ni Na bid goodnight. As she pulled the blankets up around the child's shoulders, Ni Na smiled down at her.

And Dae Hee begged her, "Please." She patted the bed next to her. "Lie down?"

Ni Na returned her smile and walked over to the opposite side of the bed. She lay down on top of it, and Dae Hee reached out to slip her hand into her teacher's. The little girl then closed her eyes. And proceeded to fall asleep.

Ni Na found herself missing Beom Sook. And his voluminous robe. That smelled of honeycomb.

––

"What's the matter?" Beom Sook asked Dae Jong an hour later.

"Come, my lord, and you will see," the boy responded crisply.

Beom Sook followed him to his room.

Dae Jong gestured towards his fully occupied bed. "Where am I to sleep now? The teacher fell asleep holding my sister's hand."

Beom Sook smiled as he gazed down at the touching tableau. The woman surely was smitten with the little girl. And that tiny child was obviously absolutely taken with her teacher.

Had Ni Na taken his words to heart then? Had she wanted to afford him another opportunity to carry her to her room?

Sighing, he crossed the distance to her side of the bed and leaned over to gently extract her hand from the girl's limp grasp. Then he bent and picked Ni Na up in his arms. He carried her into her room, but when he bent over to lay her down on her bed, her eyes fluttered open.

"This is becoming a habit, my dear. Shall we continue this lovely exercise every night?" he murmured sweetly.

"What?" She blinked up disconcertedly at him as he nestled her in her bed. The faint light of the lamp burning next to her bed the only thing illuminating her beautiful face.

"You fell asleep in Dae Hee's bed tonight."

"I did?" she gasped. She glanced around her room. "And you carried me in here again?"

"Mm-hmm."

She gazed up at him in alarm. "Beom Sook, I'm so sorry."

"Nonsense. I'm not. You were just testing out my earlier words, weren't you? To see if I was serious." He bent over her and grinned. "I was. I enjoyed carrying you in here. Now," he pulled the covers up around her and tucked them in under her chin, "sleep tight, and I shall see you early in the morning. For our first day of school with our new students."

Smiling at her, he blew out the lamp before turning and walking out into the hallway.

Leaving her...quite alone.

––

"Ni Na? What's wrong?" Beom Sook asked her the next afternoon after they'd dismissed their classes and he had wandered into her classroom to find her leaning over a table covered in ink blocks and quill pens.

"I'm missing a quill and a block of ink. No matter how many times I count them, one is still missing."

He smiled at her. "Maybe you simply miscounted."

"But how could I? I have twelve pupils. And I passed out one per child. But...there are only eleven here."

"Well, whose place was missing a set?"